Layers and Complexities
by Carbucketty
Summary: Rachel and Finn are both trying to figure each other out. Rachel is looking for the many layers of Finn; Finn is trying to find those complexities Rachel has convinced herself she doesn't possess. But, of course, things are awkward the whole way through.
1. Chapter 1

**Well. Hello there, new fandom. I love Glee quite a bit and I wanted to get myself situated before things got too overcrowded. I've recently crawled out of a fandom that I was quite dedicated to for a very long time and I hope to make myself at home here. That sounds so very weird. **

**Anyway, I'm testing my skillz with my already-established-in-my-heart-of-hearts OTP, Rachel x Finn. This will be a two-shot, more than likely. Maybe a three-shot. Reviews would be appreciated!**

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Finn's story was not very original, Rachel knew.

Talented, tortured football star yearning to break away from the status quo. It was all very _High School Musical _to her, except for the fact Zac Efron was a obviously really a girl and Finn was a very attractive boy that had the power to make Rachel's stomach twist into knots.

Anyone who had ever seen a teen movie before knew that Finn was going to have _some _sort of secret that was going to make its way into the public sooner or later. It was the way things worked out.

Just because Finn's _story_ was unoriginal, though, didn't mean that his entire existence was. There were layers and layers of personality there, Rachel was sure of this.

Why was she so sure? Because someone as amazing as Finn couldn't be so ridiculously simple.

No one ever assumed that Rachel had any secrets at all, as she was pretty open about everything. Anyone that wasn't the least bit hesitant of talking about their two fathers in such a small, backwards town probably didn't have anything interesting hiding under the surface.

Rachel believed that about herself. While her talents were extraordinary, her personality was not.

She had to no story to tell. Nothing about her childhood had been particularly shattering. She was well-adjusted, well-fed, well-read, well-polished and well-taught. She made good grades and never missed a ballet class. But if one wanted to take the time to dig deeper into Rachel's personality, complexities would start showing up; Rachel merely pushed them away to the very back of her mind.

Rachel pushed her own complexities to the back her mind and ignored them, because there was _no way _she was going to be any more complicated than Finn was. This was one of her many ways of putting him on a pedestal, of making herself understand why he would never want to be with her.

Because he was interesting and she was not.

Rachel's story was quite the mystery to Finn. What was also a mystery was the reason why he was starting to care so much or even want to talk to her at all. Sure, Rachel was pretty, but she wasn't _conventionally _pretty and those girls were normally always sort of hard to deal with.

Rachel was hard to deal with and Finn wasn't quite sure if dealing with her was going to be worth it or not. He _could _invest some time in trying to figure her out and trying to help her cope with the talent that wrapped itself around her but made her oblivious of the stress that was weighing her down---

See there? Hadn't he done a good job so far? Finn wasn't as dumb as everyone would have liked to believe and he _noticed _things. Only having known Rachel for a short time, he noticed how her eyes looked heavier and heavier every day, but that she was so good at covering those dark circles.

Finn had a list of things in his head that he'd noticed so far--- any movement that wasn't directly associated with dancing was entirely stiff, physical contact that occurred off the stage made her obviously uncomfortable (he noticed that her shoulders tensed up a ridiculous amount when she was uncomfortable), and despite how vindictive and back-biting she seemed, she was incredibly and inherently open-minded.

Of course, Finn had no idea why he cared so much.

And he kept telling himself that he wasn't going to care in a few days, or weeks, or maybe months. The "newness" of Rachel's slightly odd behavior was going to wear off and he was eventually just going to get sick of her.

He kept telling himself that and sometimes he could actually pretend that it was true.

Rachel would tell herself that more or less the same thing--- Finn's pretty face would become commonplace after a while and she would no longer get that horrible but wonderful kick-in-the-gut feeling whenever he entered the room.

This fallacy didn't stop Rachel from putting a considerable amount of effort into getting to know Finn.

Finn was having a harder and harder time covering up how intrigued he really was by Rachel.

And so things started to get a little interesting.

* * *

The ten minute breaks in between practicing numbers were Rachel's favorite part of rehearsal.

Finn always went to the same seat. House right, row three, seat four. He would pull out his cell phone and spend a varying amount of time on it. After doing so, he would get a book out of his bag and study. Initially, Rachel decided it would be best if she let Finn study, but she finally mustered up the courage to go talk to him one day when he was looking particularly frustrated.

"Are you having trouble?" she asked, glancing at the book. "_The Great Gatsby_… That's my favorite book."

Finn closed the book over his thumb to keep his place. "I like it. I really do. I just… can't focus," he sighed, running his free hand through his hair. "I've just been so tired lately, you know?"

Rachel cautiously sat down beside Finn. "I could… help you…?" she offered weakly, trying not to sound too eager. "I mean, if there's something you don't understand---"

"Would you really?" Finn was the one who should have been worried about sounding eager. "I mean--- uhm, if you have the time, maybe we could---"

"Yeah… ! Oh, of course, it's fine."

Finn reached into his backpack and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. "I have to do these questions and I haven't had time to do many of them. That's what's really stressing me out, see? I know that I can _read _the book but all I do when I pick it up is sit there and think about the questions I haven't done yet."

Rachel took the paper, slightly jerking her hand away when her finger brushed against Finn's. "Okay, you're on this one, right…? Well, the question is about the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, which are a pair of eyes painted on a billboard seems to look over the valley of ashes. This is an example, I think, of Fitzgerald actually letting his characters give meaning to an object and create the symbolism---"

"Symbolism for…?"

"Oh… Well, the eyes may represent God casting his judgment upon American society. I'm sorry… I kind of get carried away with _The Great Gatsby_, I suppose." Rachel let out a forced laugh. Completely nerding out over a book was never the best way to gain the romantic approval of a boy, she was quite certain of this.

"No, no, it's okay," Finn said, taking the paper back and writing down what Rachel had told him. "Thanks a lot, Rachel! I didn't know you were all into literature and all that."

Rachel shrugged and tried to shake off the entire thing. "It's not big deal, I just… pay attention in class. When you don't have friends distracting you…" She trailed off as Finn continued scribbling on his paper. She figured he wasn't listening. She also figured that saying something so personal was stupid.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" Finn asked when he finished writing.

"Nothing… It was nothing. Do you want me to answer anything else for you?"

Finn looked over the paper. "Maybe you could just… read what I have written down for the ones I've already answered and tell me if they're right," he suggested, handing the paper back to Rachel.

Rachel dreaded the task immediately. She didn't _want _to have to tell Finn that any of his answers were wrong. Surprisingly enough, though, his answers turned out to be a bit decent. Some of them, actually, were thought out and detailed… and _good. _"You got all of these right."

Finn let out a sigh of relief. "Really?" he asked, obviously in disbelief of his own capabilities.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief, too. "Yeah." All the answers had been right. Finn wasn't the idiot he allowed himself to be viewed as. "This is considerably awkward, but if you want to come over to my house later, I could help you finish the worksheet…?"

Finn's answer came after a brief moment of hesitation that felt like an eternity to Rachel. "Well, I have plans with Quinn later, so…"

Rachel recoiled a bit, absent-mindedly placing her hand over her heart and clutching at her sweater. She blushed deeply when she realized that she was doing this and promptly turned away from Finn. "Well, if you have plans then I guess there's nothing to be done," she muttered, letting the material of the sweater rub her fingers until they burned.

"But maybe some other time?" Finn offered, biting his lip and feeling the worst case of second-hand embarrassment to ever afflict someone. "I really like this stuff. It takes me a while to get into, but… yeah. I like it."

Rachel nodded, a bit furiously, and quickly excused herself, feeling nothing short of mortified.

Her slight victory of discovering a new side of Finn, one that knew he could be enthusiastic about learning if he weren't so tired, seemed inconsequential to that sinking feeling that accompanied the thought of Finn and his pretty, perfect girlfriend having a wonderful time while she sat and home, re-reading _The Great Gatsby_.

* * *

As Rachel ran off with that horrible, completely shattered look on her face, only one word registered in Finn's mind:

_Hypersensitive. _

It wasn't much but it was progress.

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**Okay, yeah. First chapter: done. Reviews are welcomed and loved and all that good stuff. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! It means a lot!**

**And… okay, I hate to be "that kid" that has be a huge pain in the ass but, just a word of advice: if you're going to add something to your favorite list/alert list, it's really nice to accompany that with a review. Reviews are motivation, it keeps us **_**all **_**writing for everyone. While we appreciate that you like our work enough to keep track of it, we would just like reviews as well. **

**So yes. This is basically just me exploring their characters and seeing what I like. I am dealing with Finn's nice side and his, well… Finn side, as well as Rachel's lovesick side and her take-no-prisoners side. (I mean, come on… any girl that is willing to get a teacher fired over a solo can't be one-hundred percent good, right?)**

**Enjoy chapter two!**

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The thing with Finn was that he had this severely guilty conscience that had the potential to make him feel bad about pretty much anything. He wasn't _supposed _to have this guilty conscience, obviously, since he'd made an impressively intimidating name for himself by harassing his classmates and all that, but he had it and sometimes it drove him absolutely _mad. _

Finn wasn't sure if he would have agreed to go to Rachel's house or not if he hadn't had plans with Quinn. He knew that doing so was a sure-fire way to get his homework done and probably bring his English grade up to at least a C, but there was just something so entirely _awkward _about the whole thing.

And wouldn't that technically be _using _her? She would have written the whole assignment out for him, if he'd asked her to. But he didn't, because that's wrong.

And there was that damned guilty conscience again.

Rachel had this awful look on her face for the rest of rehearsal. Though Finn sort of thought she was blowing the situation out of proportion (he could have said something incredibly snarky to her or something; under the current circumstances, one would agree that Finn's denial was for a legitimate reason) he could basically feel Rachel's distress radiating out of every move she made. Every note she sang was lazy and light; her eyes were focused on some unknown object in some unknown realm of her own _hypersensitive _mind.

Finn wanted to tell her that it honestly wasn't that big of a deal, that if she wanted to get together the next day, or the next, or even a week from now, that would be fine. Any day would be fine, but he knew that it would probably just make things worse and he would be up all night worrying about it.

So he didn't say anything at all.

Rehearsal ended and Finn dawdled to see if Mr. Schuester was going to comment on Rachel's uncharacteristic behavior. Sure enough, the comforting hand of their sympathetic instructor was placed on Rachel's shoulder and he asked that simple-but-hard-to-answer question:

"Are you okay?"

Rachel gave a slightly frantic nod but didn't accompany it with an actual response. She didn't do anything at all, actually. She just sort of stood there and Finn officially felt like complete shit.

"You're always the one that's at the top of the game," Mr. Schuester told her. "I can tell that something's bothering you. You don't _have _to tell me anything. Just know that you_ can. _… Okay?"

Rachel nodded again. She muttered something, but Finn couldn't quite tell what.

Mr. Schuester gave Finn a _look_. It wasn't a normal look, it was a genuine _look_.

And Finn continued to feel like absolute shit.

"I'll see you kids later, alright?"

Finn gave an awkward wave and Rachel's lips twitched into what was _almost _a successful fake smile. The rest of the crew left and Rachel started gathering her belongings. Much to Finn's surprise, she was the one that started conversation.

"If I was coming on too strong---"

"It wasn't that," Finn groaned, wondering why she was thinking into this so much. "I promise you, it wasn't that. I have plans with Quinn."

But Rachel wasn't listening. "Or if you're nervous about meeting my two dad, I promise you---"

"Rachel, I _promise _it has nothing to do with your dads, that was seriously the last thing in my mind. I don't want you to think that it was because of _that_. Quinn and I have plans. We've had these plans for a while. If you want to get together tomorrow, then I'll go for it."

Rachel shrugged, pulling her bag over her shoulder and walking towards the door.

Sneaky, sneaky. She'd completely turned the tables.

"I don't know if I'll be able to do anything tomorrow, actually."

And Finn played right into her hands.

"Are you sure? Because I'm free, definitely. We don't even have to go to your house. We can go to mine. Or anywhere."

Rachel gave a complacent smile. "Well, if you're that eager, than I'm sure we can plan _something_. You have my number, right? You should call me. I'll talk to you later, Finn."

With a flourish, she was gone.

"… What…?" Finn asked himself.

And then he realized that Rachel was quite possibly one of the sneakiest, most manipulative people he had ever met.

* * *

Quinn wasn't good for much.

Finn never wanted to admit that, but really. There wasn't much to talk about with her. It seemed like she never really knew anything about new movies and she didn't have a favorite band. She was distanced from current events and the only thing she knew was her strict Conservative upbringing. There were no meaningful conversations, but there was a lot of touching and general prettiness on her part.

Because she was very, very pretty.

And Finn, like any normal teenage boy, thought that was just great.

"So did you _see _what Rachel Berry was wearing today? It was totally, like, hipster-prep chic gone _completely_ wrong, am I right?" Quinn asked, running her perfect little hands through Finn's hair. "I mean, I can't even understand why you would want to be seen around someone like her."

"Hipster-prep chic… makes no sense," Finn said absent-mindedly, tracing circles on Quinn's back with his finger. "No sense at all."

Quinn was more than a bit taken aback. "Are you standing up for her?" she asked, immediately stopping all physical contact.

"N-no!" Finn stammered. "I was just saying… that makes no sense. Can't I make an observation around you?"

But Quinn wasn't fooled. "Okay, look, Finn: you can have fun in your little _club _but eventually you're going to have to face the fact that these people… aren't like you and me. You know? Do you understand?"

Finn wasn't ready to turn this into his aggrandizing movie moment, where he stands for what's right and changes Quinn's narrow-minded ways forever, so he simply said, "I understand, babe. Really."

But he really didn't understand.

Finn didn't understand a lot of things, to be incredibly honest. He didn't understand his math homework, why Mr. Schuester was letting him get away with not turning in that paper, but most of all he didn't understand why he had allowed Rachel to turn the tables and save face at the risk of him looking like a desperate fool.

He didn't understand that at all.

The situation was easy enough to comprehend: Finn was busy and Rachel's feeling were hurt. The outcome was simply strange, but was it intentional? Had Rachel been feigning minor heartbreak the entire time, just to win Finn's sympathy? Whatever the case, she was either completely evil or completely brilliant… or both.

And Finn found that to be absolutely _fascinating. _

* * *

Every night, Rachel debated with herself over whether or not she should send Finn a friend request on Myspace. There was no harm in it, really, but did she want to seem that needy? She had never sent a friend request in her entire Myspace career. That was bowing down to the other person, you were _requesting _their _approval_ and Rachel Berry just did not do that.

So she always reached the same conclusion: _one day he will care enough to send me a request._

And she left it at that.

Well, not really. What she did was decide to make another video that she knew would be posted and mocked so much that Finn was bound to see it. She didn't want to admit that such tactics were worse than requesting for Finn's approval. She was setting herself up for humiliation for his approval.

But she's wasn't sending that friend request. That was what mattered the most.

The song in question was _Unusual Way_, from a show that she wasn't particularly fond of. It was a lovely, slightly haunting tune that Rachel had always enjoyed. When the song came on her iTunes the day she found out about Finn's relationship status, she unashamedly bawled her eyes and promptly listened to it a good sixteen times before falling asleep right at her computer desk.

She set up her camera and made sure that her appearance was up to par. If she was going to be humiliated, she was going to at least look a bit pretty while doing so.

Just as she began to sing the opening line of the song, that line that reflected a level of closeness that she would probably never experience with Finn, her cell phone rang. Rachel didn't usually receive calls this late at night (or at all, actually) so this took her a bit by surprise.

Her heart promptly dropped straight to her feet when she saw Finn's name flashing across the screen.

"H-hello…?"

"Rachel? Rachel! Hey!"

He was trying so very hard.

"Hello, Finn."

She was also trying so very hard.

"Uhm, yeah, I'm just gonna get straight to the point… I'm pretty sorry about what happened today, honestly---"

"It's nothing, really."

"No, I mean… I feel like I came off as being rude… or you thought I was lying, which I… wasn't."

"So you're not with Quinn anymore?" Rachel's tone was both smooth and cold. She was glad couldn't see the way her brow was furrowed, or else he would think she was very unattractive.

"Yeah, she just left…"

"… Well."

Awkward.

"So… I could really use your help on all this literature stuff… I mean, I'm not trying to t---"

"_Please _stop frantically explaining yourself. You're treating me as if I'm a delicate flower."

The scoff Rachel received in response to that wasn't exactly well-received, but before she had time to question it, Finn said:

"Maybe I'm treating you as if you're a _delicate flower _because you were acting like one this afternoon. Did you think of that? Or have you conveniently forgotten about you moped all around the stage for the entire rehearsal?"

"Perhaps I have conveniently forgotten. But besides that, I am still willing to help you on your homework despite the fact that you have just verbally abused me."

Finn scoffed again, but didn't sound quite so annoyed. "Well, a life in the theatre has taught you how to take criticism, I guess."

"How right you are. So what's the plan? Your place? Mine? Or maybe a nice neutral place. Maybe the library."

"Library sounds good."

Rachel quite missed Finn's stammering desperation to be nice. "Right after practice?" she asked, inwardly scolding herself for not being able to get rid of her sharp, rigid tone.

"That also sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Indeed."

_Click. _

Rachel could have very well kicked her own ass out of the rage she was currently feeling towards herself. _Really, Rachel? Really? Was it necessary to be such a massive bitch? _was all she could think. When she checked her Myspace one last time before going to bed (having completely given up on the idea of making a new video) she saw that she had a friend request from Finn, sent just a couple of minutes after their phone conversation had ended.

The message that accompanied it was a little smiley face.

Rachel smiled, too. Finn really was a nice guy.

* * *

Quinn was still a little miffed about the discussion earlier, so Finn received no text messages or late night phone calls from her. This left him to dwell on things in silence.

He decided that maybe Rachel _wasn't_ hypersensitive. Maybe she was just tricky.

Or maybe she was just smart--- covering up her own hypersensitivity with an undeniable ability to make any situation turn out in her favor.

Or maybe she was simply the most complex individual Finn had ever met.

That was his best guess.


End file.
